Chicken Express, located at 2 Warnock Springs Rd in Magnolia, Arkansas, is offering a free meal to people who present a concealed handgun license on Independence Day.  “On Saturday July 4th we will be giving a FREE #1 combo to anyone with a Conceal Handgun License.,” their Facebook page proclaims. “This will be DINE IN ONLY. You must have your License with you! We hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!” This is not the first restaurant to reward legal gun owners  . . .

There have been a number of other restaurants that welcome both the open and concealed carry of firearms and offer promotions based on the same (e.g. Shooter’s Grill in Colorado and Bergeron’s Restaurant in Louisiana). There are many advantages to such an offer.

First, they attract a prosperous, well-educated, and responsible clientèle. People who have concealed carry permits, CHLs or whatever the local idiom may be are better educated, more prosperous and are more responsible than the general population. They are precisely the type of customer that a business would want to attract and keep.

Secondly, they decrease the likelihood of an armed robbery. Only an especially stupid criminal would try to rob at a business with legally armed customers. It may still happen. Many criminals are stupid, many are functionally illiterate, and many are high on drugs or alcohol or a combination when they commit their crimes. But just as cop bars or gun stores are seldom the victims of robberies, open carry restaurants should enjoy a significant deterrent effect.

Some eateries in some states would never dream of offering concealed or open carry customers a discount. Some restaurants in some states are embracing the idea – and being rewarded with a big bump in trade. Winning?

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Gun Watch

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38 COMMENTS

  3. There’s a local eatery near my home (Westside Cafe on Hwy 80 West in Fort Worth, Texas) with a sign welcoming customer’s guns. They do request that the gun remain holstered but if needed “Judicious aim is appreciated!”

    • Ha I’ve seen those signs in a lot of gun friendly places. Reminds me of Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado. Check it out if you haven’t, looks awesome!

    • Hey, there was a story in the news the other day about that place. One of the waitresses was told by a customer that they had recently lost their baby to illness. So when she brought the check, it said the meal was on the house, and the management sympathized with their loss. Turns out she had paid the bill out of her own pocket. Sounds like a really neat place–neater still since they are freedom-friendly.

  4. Do I just need the license? lol my communist state won’t issue my permit and I can’t buy a gun without it but I already have a non-resident permit…*sigh*.

    • Chicken Express serves only Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Georgia, if I recall the graphic on the box. So no communist state problems, but I assume this only applies to the mentioned Arkansas location.

    • Nate, love ya man, but that is blue state sh_t that you have to breed out. Get rid of that.

      If you’re being held hostage, start your next post with the word “i” and we’ll take it from there. Keep your eyes closed and your jaw shut but your lips open very slightly for when the flashbangs go off.

  5. Wouldnt this defeat the purpose of it being conceald if you let the staff at the restaurant know

  6. I will be damned! I have kin folks in Magnolia. I might just have to mosey up there on the 4th and leave them a bit tip.

    • Perhaps you’d be better served by taking your delicate constitution to your local salad shop, and quietly letting them know that you have a gun and you’d like a free meal.

  8. Why only CHL holders? Some of us refuse to be treated like a criminal in order to be “allowed” to exercise a right.

  12. I’ve thought about doing something like this if I owned a suitable business. I would probably do a promotion like this on Independence Day or Bill of Rights Day (December 15th) and perhaps a small discount year-round. I’m not sure if I’d do it for holding a concealed carry license, perhaps I would, but not everyone with such a license carries their gun or even politically supports concealed carry or the right to keep and bear arms. I would prefer people show me a valid membership card for the NRA, GOA, JPFO, AzCDL, the Pink Pistols, Armed Citizens United, or similar American civil rights organizations that are protecting our right that is most at risk, the right to keep and bear arms. If you’re a member of any of these organizations, you’re doing something to protect our rights.

  16. The way the sign is phrased, the 95% (apparently, and yes I’m a bit grouchy this morning) of people who get their license and then never actually use it, get a freebie, since all it requires is the license, not the gun.

  19. spent six weeks working in Magnolia , arkansas. this is the prettiest little town I have ever seen. the residents go around picking the trash up from their streets. (usually a macdonalds wrapper discarded by tourists), they are out sweeping their street at 6 am, and when you drive down a side street, the traffic on the main street will stop for you. when I asked why they did that, the lady said, well, maybe someone might not see their stop sign. the town is full of murals on their buildings. some showing the cotton days, some the oil boom, an artist was painting one that covered the movie industry from the 1940’s through the 1990’s when I was there. was about 40 feet high and hundred feet long. they have fantastic food. and everybody I met was extremely friendly. was a really hot august and temps were over a hundred, though.

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